OILD: Mutant League Hockey

Day 9 of Obligatory Ice Level Day is here! We’re counting down to the Mario marathon on December 14th, when we’ll be raising money for the Make A Wish Foundation! Tune in for some awesome games and sweet prizes, like handmade wooden item blocks and a Wii U Deluxe! So you’ve probably noticed that a lot of these ice levels are from newer games. Well it’s time to kick it old-school, and by “it” I of course mean “crazed orc athletes.” That’s right, today’s ice level is a whole game, and that game is Mutant League Hockey!

WHOOH MUTANT LEEAAAGUE! I’m sure nobody here even remembers this game but I do! I played it on SEGA CHANNEL! WHOOOH!!!

Mutant League Hockey is pretty silly. It’s a goofy sports game, released in a time when most sports games were meant to be realistic and serious. Instead of boring old humans, MLH was full of skeletons, orcs, robots, and all sorts of weirdos. All of the teams also had ridiculous names, like the Pucksucker Pukes, the Dead Things, and my personal favorite, the Mighty Weenies. The gameplay itself was also pretty bizarre. I mean sure, you could win the game by scoring more points. You know, like one of those boring humans. But wouldn’t you rather, say, smack your opponents with your hockey stick until they just keel over? Or how about pushing them into bottomless pits on the rink? Or knock them into mines? Yep, the Mutant League has it all. You could even initiate combat against your opponent. The screen would switch to a close-up of two players, and you could punch each other until one freak falls. If you murdered enough of the enemy players, the other team would simply forfeit. Monsters sure have a crazy way to play sports, I got to say.

RAAAGGHHH! MVP SMASH!

Hooray for music! So, Mutant League Hockey DOES have music, but I honestly could not find the original soundtrack on Youtube. Go figure. So instead let’s have some other icy Sega Genesis tunes! Ice Scream and Ring Rink are from Ristar! Welcome to the Temple is from Comix Zone! Hard Water is from Ecco the Dolphin! And while it’s not Genesis, Ice Mountain Zone from Sonic Advance is still pretty great!